One surprising October surprise is advanced by whistleblower Mike McCormick on Substack (Midnight in the Laptop of Good and Evil). Mr. McCormick was White House stenographer under Presidents Bush II, Obama, and Trump. His job was to transcribe meetings, speeches, and interactions between major political figures. He was the proverbial fly-on-the-wall for years and years. He has seen and heard a lot and still hears a lot from people who know a lot. He says the Obama-Biden-Harris faction of the Deep State blob is anti-Israel and that Israel understands what this means. He says that Benjamin Netanyahu has told “Joe Biden” (or, let’s say, told errand-boys Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan) that if the blob engineers a phony victory for Kamala Harris, he will blow up the oil fields in Iran and the anti-Israel Democrats will have to pick up the pieces.
As I recall, China gets upward of 90% of its oil from Iran nowadays, so cutting it off would matter to that crowd.
There it is, raw power politics, like so much meat on the table. “Joe Biden” cannot control Bibi. “Joe Biden” is too far gone and two weak, and Israel does not aim to let itself get wiped off the map, as Iran’s leadership never tires of saying. The blob, McCormick says, has to ask itself: does it help rig the election for Harris or stand down on all its ballot harvesting and other trickery and actually allow a real election to roll out? Surprise! Now, take your Kit-kat bar and go home.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
10/05/2024 00:00 ||
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[ZeroHedge] The Biden-Harris administration is facing several disasters this week.
From FEMA's botched response in the hurricane-ravaged US Southeast to elevated WW3 risks in the Middle East, one major and ongoing crisis that went underreported this week was multiple attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea.
On Wednseday we penned a note, citing intelligence firm SynMax, which specializes in maritime and energy intelligence, about two commercial vessels targeted by Houthis:
"Two ships targeted by Houthis in the RedSea yesterday—Panama-flagged CORDELIA MOON and Liberian-flagged MINOAN COURAGE—the first such attacks since September," SynMax wrote on X.
This chaos has sparked global supply chain snarls for the shipping industry as commercial vessels are rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope.
Even more concerning is the Biden-Harris administration's failure of 'Operation Prosperity Guardian' to ensure freedom of navigation and maritime security in the critical chokepoint.
Meanwhile, the clogged chokepoint is causing major supply chain disruptions at top global ports.
CNN Business' Richard Quest pointed this out on X, "Extraordinary number of ships at Singapore. All bunched up here because of Red Sea disruption to shipping and shifts in way things are being shipped. Fascinating. This is where commerce and geo politics come face to face."
In August, former Navy Seal and Blackwater founder Erik Prince issued this dire warning about what the clogged Red Sea actually means for the West: America's "credibility and deterrence" are quickly eroding.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Yaroslav Karpikov
[REGNUM] Since 2022, the front in the northeast of the DPR has formed the so-called Torsky salient. It is named after the ancient village of Torskoye, which is located immediately behind the line of combat contact, in the still occupied territory.
Since the end of the year before last and up to now there have been battles on the salient - positional, but very active. Torskoye regularly appears in the reports.
To the east, in the rear of our troops, is the city of Kremennaya (LPR). It was liberated at the beginning of the special operation, in April 2022.
In August of the following year, after heavy fighting, a local Ukrainian "counteroffensive" was repelled here. But Torskoye is still in enemy hands.
Although the recent capture of the neighboring Luhansk village of Makeyevka (the “namesake” of the city in the DPR) gives hope that the “frozen” front line will shift, opening up the possibility of liberating both the ancient village of Torskoye and the strategically important city of Seversk.
So, Kremennaya returned to the Russian world, Torskoye remains on the "Ukrainian" side. Although, let us note, historically - judging by the documents - Kremennaya was populated by Little Russians, and the village, and then the settlement of Torskaya - by Great Russians.
This was a common occurrence in the Sloboda "Ukrainian lands". Here, "Great Russian" and "Little Russian" villages and settlements existed side by side for centuries, but their inhabitants preserved their way of life and did not take spouses from other social and ethnic groups.
The villages where the Great Russians lived were a kind of enclaves. They appeared "at the edge", at the border of the Russian state, where service people from the central Russian regions moved. And then, when the borders of the empire moved far to the south, these villages, settlements and towns found themselves, albeit "in the rear", but in a "Little Russian" environment. Among the surviving enclaves, the village of Torskoye is one of the oldest. Even according to the 2001 census, the composition of the population here looked like this: first Russians, then Ukrainians.
HEXAGON AT THE BLACK STALLION
The first settlers - natives of Great Russia - appeared here around 1767, during the reign of Catherine II. This date was found by indirect evidence. The archives contain a general land survey plan, which was drawn up after the Patriotic War of 1812 by a certain Levitsky, a land surveyor of the Slobodsko-Ukrainian (future Kharkov) province.
But the information for these maps was collected much earlier, under Catherine the Great. In fact, the plans of all private, church and state property of the Russian Empire compiled at that time were the equivalent of the "cadastral maps" that we still use today. And so, in the upper cartouche (inscription) to the plan of the village of Torskoy, it is written: the first survey, which recorded that people lived here, was "carried out" here in 1767. Thus, Torskoye is the same age as the empire's rapid advance to the south. The village is older than Yekaterinoslav, founded in 1776, not to mention Odessa (founded in 1795).
Why these places began to be actively developed in the sixties of the 18th century is clear from another document: "The soil of the land is black earth. The best grain will grow from the grain sown on it."
But the name itself - Torskaya or Torskoye - appeared later, when a new wave of settlers settled here. They were from Slavyansk. And this city received its current name only in 1794 - before that, for more than a hundred years, the local settlement (founded under Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich ) was called the Tor fortress. The people who moved here from Slavyansk belonged to a class with an interesting history - single-court dwellers.
This is what they called those whose ancestors were "border guards" who defended the Russian kingdom from the Poles and nomads of the Wild Field. Once upon a time, grandfathers and great-grandfathers - archers, Cossacks, boyar children - were sent by the tsar's order to the "frontier", which their descendants continued to develop.
Odnodvortsy, although they ran a peasant economy, were a privileged class. They owned the land on which they lived, were never in serfdom, and what's more, wealthy odnodvortsy could own estates with serfs themselves.
A census of Torskaya residents from the late 18th century has been preserved, and the surnames there are the same as those of the single-homesteaders from Tor-Slavyansk. Judging by the sound of these surnames, they are clearly not Little Russian: from the Alferovs and Aseyevs to the Tararyevs, Shilovs and Shchetinins. Even the Khokhlins most likely come from the central provinces.
A description of how the single-homesteaders from Tor settled Torskoye can be found in the travel notes left by Academician Ioann Anton Gildenshtedt. Note that the personality itself is remarkable. This German scientist in Russian service is known not only for his report on his journey through Slobozhanshchina, but also for explaining the origin of black soil and the nature of typhus epidemics (and was also one of the first Europeans to study the customs of the highlanders of Chechnya, Ossetia and Dagestan “in the field”).
In other archival documents, Torskoye is called a "dacha", but of course not in the modern sense of "six hundred square meters for a vegetable garden". A dacha is a large plot of land for a settlement. Here it was a hexagon, cut from the west by the flow of the Black Stallion River - which then served as the border between the Izyum and Kupyansk districts. By the way, even now the valley of the Zherebets River has become a border - the front line runs here.
"WOMEN AND MEN KEPT THE GREAT RUSSIAN CLOTHES"
The already mentioned academician Gildenshtedt, having visited Torskaya and the surrounding single-courtyard villages, made short sketches about the life and everyday life of the people he met. He noted: the habits, clothing and way of doing business of the Little Russians and Great Russian single-courtyard villages differed. Even though both had lived side by side for decades and sold the fruits of their labor together at fairs “in Lugan,” in Novoaydar and Bakhmut.
"The women of the single-court dwellers, like the men, retained the Great Russian clothing without any change," the German scholar noted. The single-court dwellers' men did not shave their beards, like their ancestors in their "historical homeland," and wore caftans made of gray or white cloth.
"Instead of boots, they wear bast shoes, which are made from elm or linden bast. Women also walk either in bast shoes or barefoot," noted Gildenstedt.
Bast shoes are woven from the fibrous inner tree bark, similar in style to espadrilles. They are inexpensive, quickly made, and disposable — peasant footwear.
Girls and married women "put on a sleeveless sarafan over their shirt and gird themselves with a belt." On their heads, the Torsk "ladies" wore "a low cylindrical headdress made of red and white material, and embroidered or trimmed with galloon in front and back." This is a "soroka" - the same headdress worn by peasant women in the Tula, Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh provinces.
Girls tied their heads with a white, rather than a colored scarf, braided their hair into one flat braid, and preferred a string of coral beads as jewelry rather than “ducats and monists.”
But the Torsk settlers still borrowed some things from their Little Russian neighbors.
For example, in the time of Gildenstedt they no longer built smoky huts, but erected huts in the Little Russian style. But still - "the Great Russian custom is to lay the floor with boards, while in Little Russian huts the floor is simply clay." They no longer harnessed "horsepower" to the plough, but oxen, and the ploughs were made in the Little Russian style. But they still rode horses, while their neighbors moved only on oxen.
The dialect of the Little Russians differed from that of the Great Russians (odnodvortsy). Despite all attempts at Ukrainization in the 1920s and 1930s in the Ukrainian SSR, with the introduction of a general standardized education, the residents of Torskoye were able to preserve their Great Russian dialect until the 21st century.
The author's great-grandfather, a native of Torskoye, born back in 1905, used "obsolete" words in his speech. Even now, among the natives of the Great Russian enclaves of Sumy, Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk regions, one can hear words such as: "tsaberka" - a bucket, "tyarpuh" - a burdock or simpleton, "neopetskuvaty" - cunning or smart, "ryshtak" - a drain trough, "yoynyy” - his, "vekhtik" - a rag, "porotyanki” - pants, etc.
HOW THE DESCENDANTS OF SERVICE PEOPLE BECAME COSSACKS AGAIN
As mentioned above, the ancestors of the single-court dwellers included Cossacks, and they themselves were free people. This class again entered the sovereign's service in 1787-1796. Then, the "Ekaterinoslav Cossack Host" was formed from the single-court dwellers of the Yekaterinoslav and Kharkov viceroyalties (including residents of the village of Torskaya).
The idea of creating an analogue of the Don Cossack army from single-court dwellers and military inhabitants of the southern viceroyalties - Slobozhanshchina and Novorossiya - belonged to His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin, who highly valued the qualities of single-court dwellers.
The village of Torskaya, like the neighboring single-household settlements (the settlement of Sukhareva, the village of Yampolovka - today's settlement of Yampol and other settlements), turned into a stanitsa, and the male residents began to serve in the Cossack service according to the model of the Don Army.
During this period, the village of Torskaya was part of the Bakhmut district of the Yekaterinoslav viceroyalty. According to the 1795 census, there were 203 male and 222 female souls in the village of Torskaya. All residents of Torskaya were parishioners of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the neighboring settlement of Sukhareva (three miles to the south), and when for some reason this church closed, they became parishioners of the "Little Russian" or "Cherkasy" St. George Church in another settlement, Popovka.
But, by the way, not all villagers were strong in faith - judging by the archives, in the first decade of the 19th century, the teachings of the Dukhobors (which were considered heresy) spread among the single-householders, and some of the settlers were “transferred” to the Melitopol district of the Taurida province.
The Dukhobors were Christian pacifists who believed in personal revelation rather than Orthodox Christian priests and ritual. Many emigrated to Canada at the beginning of the 20th century, where they can still be found today.
At the turn of 1798-1799, the residents of Torskaya were finally returned to the class of single-homesteaders from the Cossacks, and the settlement turned from a "stanitsa" back into a "village". But the authorities did not forget about the residents of Torskaya.
DESCENDANTS OF RUSSIA'S DEFENDERS AWAIT LIBERATION
At the very beginning of the reign of Alexander I, in 1802, several families of Tortsy - the Dyatlovs, Igolkins, Khokhlins, Shilovs - were resettled to the Caucasian line, to the village of Ladozhskaya. Now this is the Ust-Labinsk district of the Krasnodar region, but at that time these foothills were another "frontier" - this time on the border with the lands of the Circassian highlanders.
Thus, the single-homesteaders from Torskoye continued the tradition of their ancestors, who defended the Russian borders, including from the Cherkasy (as the Cossacks were called, including those in the service of the Polish king). Torskoye became a "donor" for the Caucasian line for a long time.
The upheavals of modern times did not bypass the settlements on the Black Stallion. Kharkov province was the arena of battles of the Civil War.
And later, by decision of the party leadership, this territory, like other lands of Slobozhanshchina and Novorossiya, was “voluntarily-forcibly” integrated into Soviet Ukraine - although the leaders of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic tried to defend a different opinion.
The stone Ascension Church in Torskoye, according to some documents, “ceased to function” in 1919, according to others, it was closed during collectivization. In 1941-1943, these places, like the entire Donbass, experienced Nazi occupation, and since 2014 have become the object of Kyiv’s “anti-terrorist operation.”
In May and September-October 2022, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched an offensive on the nearest settlements - the cities of Krasny Liman and Svyatogorsk, the village of Yampol, and the village of Bogorodichnoye. And, as mentioned above, the front line stopped for a long time near Torskoye.
Military observers often make fun of months-long battles for some forgotten village. However, one only has to touch upon its history - and what is happening appears differently. The battles on the Torsky ledge have a symbolic meaning. These are battles for the reunification of the entire Russian people with a tiny but integral part of it, which by the will of fate was cut off from its historical homeland.
Ukrainians are not Russians. They don't want to be "reunited" with those who obliterate their country.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
10/05/2024 16:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Ukrainians are not Russians.
A view that, as I understand, was long popular in Germany.
The Ukrainian view - taught in their schools - that they are the real Russians, whereas "Russians" are Tatars.
The (prevailing) view in Russia is that Ukraine is Russia's retarded sibling - what cannot be allowed out on it's own. I must say that the events of the last 33 years are most consistent with Russian view.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] Iran's latest attacks have once again shaken the Middle East and the rest of the world. Emotions are mixed: some countries are happy that Israel has finally "got what it deserved," while others in the West express solidarity with the Jewish state. Still others fear becoming a victim or being drawn into someone else's confrontation. Where does Turkey fit into this complex equation with so many variables?
It is logical to assume that the Turkish government and the majority of the population, who have long been sympathetic to Hamas, should rejoice. Iran is taking revenge for Palestine, among other things, and therefore everything is according to the system "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." But is this really so?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not say anything specific about the Iranian missile attack. There were no words of direct support, although some media outlets came out with the headline "Erdogan approved Iran's missile attack against Israel."
Literally, the Turkish president stated the following: " Israeli aggression includes Turkey, so Ankara will resist this state terrorism with all available means." That is, the emphasis here is on Israel itself, on the fact that it is the aggressor, and the aggressor can and must be resisted. Iran's support was only indirect.
The junior partner of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Devlet Bahçeli, representing the nationalists, also managed to speak out : “Those who think that the war will be limited to the Middle East are mistaken.” And in this phrase, support for Iran is felt even less.
Bahceli echoes what experienced world politicians, including Sergey Lavrov, say : there is a high probability of a number of players, including the United States, being drawn into the war. Turkey is a NATO member and has an American military base on its territory, so escalation puts Ankara before a difficult choice.
It would be strange to expect Bahçeli to have sympathy for Tehran, since he represents the MHP party, which idealizes the “Turan” project, to which its ideologists also include the 30-million-strong Azerbaijani-Turkic diaspora in Iran.
Turkey cannot condemn Iran either, because then Ankara would de facto recognize the legitimacy of Israel's actions, which are a priori illegitimate for it. And if we leave aside sympathies and antipathies, the Erdogan administration believes that Israel is objectively to blame for the escalation.
By the way, before the missile strike on Israel, the Yeni Şafak newspaper reported that the US, via Turkey, allegedly asked the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) not to carry out a large-scale attack on Israel, and Ankara itself called on the parties to avoid a major war. Later, the Turkish Foreign Ministry gave an explanation and confirmed that the country had indeed tried to act as a mediator, calling on both Washington and Tehran to make balanced decisions.
“We will continue to make efforts to prevent the launch of a process that will cause irreparable damage to the stability of our region and lead to even greater conflict at the global level,” the press service of the Turkish diplomatic department said.
In the end, no one listened to Turkey, the US was unable to rein in Benjamin Netanyahu, and Iran struck. At the same time, the Iranians, as diplomatic sources told Yeni Şafak, informed their Turkish colleagues in advance about the planned strike.
If we rewind the clock a little further, we can find additional signs of indirect support for the Iranians: Hakan Fidan's ministry blamed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
The statement was symbolic, even if it was dictated only by Turkey's general anti-Israeli position. Ankara then in fact supported not only Iran, but also Syria, despite the fact that relations with it have not been restored to this day.
BETTING ON THE SUNNIS
It would seem that Dolmabahce's position on Lebanon is more obvious and clear, there are no half-tones or hints in it - Israel invaded a sovereign country, period. The Turkish Foreign Ministry perceived the start of the ground operation in Lebanon as a "violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity" and an "illegal attempt at occupation." Erdogan, on the other hand, harshly called the Israeli shelling of Lebanon genocide. But there are nuances here too.
Erdogan does not sympathize with Hezbollah, does not comment on the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah. And where would sympathy come from if Turkish PMCs and the pro-Turkish armed opposition in Syria fought against Assad, supported by Hezbollah, Iran and pro-Iranian groups?
Hezbollah is part of the Shiite project, and Erdogan is betting on the Sunnis, who make up almost half of Lebanon's population. Therefore, by condemning Israel and sending humanitarian aid to Lebanon, the "Turkish Sultan" is addressing his support primarily to them.
Since the Gaza war began last October, evidence has mounted of Erdogan’s support for other pro-Iranian forces, such as the Houthis. When the latter began attacking Western ships and the US and UK launched strikes in Yemen, Erdogan accused the US of trying to turn the Red Sea into a “sea of blood.”
If you dig even deeper, you can find many other similar examples. But in terms of the general clash between Israel and the Iranian “Axis of Resistance,” of all the victims and targets of Israeli aggression, Erdogan sincerely and most of all feels sorry for Hamas. This sympathy stems from ideology: Hamas is the “Muslim Brotherhood” (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), and Erdogan’s AKP party is the same “brotherhood.”
Türkiye winks at the rest – Hezbollah, the Houthis, the damaged Iranian consulate and Iran itself in general – exclusively in the context of the confrontation with Israel.
"AGGRESSION AT THE DOORSTEP"
It is curious that, in addition to declaring lofty and somewhat idealistic universal (condemnation of genocide) and pan-Islamic (protection of Muslims of the world) principles, the Turkish government has recently switched to more down-to-earth rhetoric. Erdogan, representatives of the AKP, Fidan and others say that Israel threatens Turkey itself and if it is not stopped, “we will be next.”
"After Palestine and Lebanon, the Israeli leadership, obsessed with the insane idea of a 'promised land,' will target our homelands. Occupation, terror and aggression are already at our doorstep. Before us is not a state bound by law, but a gang of murderers, feeding on blood and fattened by occupation," Erdogan said, commenting on the IDF offensive in Lebanon.
Obviously, fears about Israeli aggression against Turkey are exaggerated. Israel has enough enemies without having to fight the second most powerful army in NATO. And they have no territorial claims against each other. Here, the AKP and its leader are playing more for the domestic public, trying once again to consolidate a society worried about the economic crisis, the influx of refugees and other social problems.
While placing special emphasis on Turkey's defense, its government will not forget about the Islamic factor. Hence the president's latest warnings about Israel's intentions to expand into Syria and Lebanon and create a "promised land" between the Tigris and Euphrates. To counter these plans, Erdogan calls on fellow believers throughout the region to create an "Islamic alliance."
"Islamic countries must give the strongest possible response to the persecution in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. As Muslims, we must lead the world in preventing oppression," he says.
"SOLIDARITY LINE"
The Turkish leader wants to use his personal example to convince Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and other countries to impose their will on Israel. At the end of July, he admitted that, "if necessary," the Turkish Armed Forces could enter Israel and Libya. The Arab world listens to the Turk, applauds him, but is in no hurry to take any action.
Erdogan probably understands himself that neither Egypt, nor the KSA, nor the UAE will join the anti-Israeli coalition. But Erdogan would not be Erdogan if he left empty-handed. Pan-Islamic rhetoric helps him solve his problems with his former opponents.
How else can one find a common language with the Egyptian general As-Sisi, who was not recognized by the Turks just yesterday, or with the still unrecognized Bashar al-Assad, if not through uniting around a rhetoric that is understandable to them, of sympathy for the suffering of Muslims in Gaza, Lebanon and the entire Middle East.
Under the guise of fighting Zionism and Israel, Turkey is holding its first summits in 13 years with the Arab League and Egypt, and is preparing to do the same with Damascus. Erdogan says outright that recent moves to normalize relations with Damascus and Cairo are aimed at forming a “line of solidarity” against the Israeli threat.
In short, the Turkish president has condemned, with varying degrees of severity, all of Israel's attacks against Iran and its allies. And in a political sense, the government in Ankara will continue to sympathize with the "Axis of Resistance" in their fight against the Jewish state, because it is also fighting for Hamas.
At the same time, both members of the ruling coalition in Turkey and the cabinet, despite all their hatred for Netanyahu, do not want the situation to get out of control.
While blaming the US for failing to contain Bibi's ambitions, the Turkish Foreign Ministry is more than willing to act as a mediator between Washington and Tehran to soften the impact of Iranian "retaliatory strikes."
Turkey does not need a major war in the Middle East, especially in the context of the lira crisis. Turkey is laying a transport route to the Persian Gulf through Iraq (the "Development Path"), wants to be a logistics, food and energy hub, needs investments from the UAE and KSA, and is expanding projects with Egypt.
War and instability will destroy all these financial and economic plans.
At the same time, it is worth remembering that, just like Israel, Iran is perceived by the Turks as a competitor in the struggle for influence in the Middle East, the Mediterranean and North Africa.
It’s just that today the goals of Iran and Turkey have coincided, and the declared fight against Zionism meets the economic, domestic and foreign policy interests of both the country and Erdogan’s ruling party.
Posted by: badanov ||
10/05/2024 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
